New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) claimed Thursday that the GOP tax bill will create an “economic civil war” because it eliminates state and local tax deductions which, he argued, hits the blue states harder and that money will be used to finance tax cuts for the red states.
“They, the Senate, has no senators from blue states,” Cuomo told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota of those that voted for the bill, “this tax provision hits the blue states by eliminating the state and local tax deductibility and uses that money to finance the tax cuts in the red states.”
Camerota asked Cuomo if he thought the provision was “payback, you think, for the blue states not voting for the president?”
“This is the most partisan, divisive legislation we’ve seen,” he said. “What the senate was saying is ‘because we have no senators from the blue states, we don’t care, so let’s pillage the blue to give to the red.’ That’s never been done in this nation before. That’s partisan politicking over any semblance of good government.”
“Maybe [the bill] worked for the Senate because they don’t have any Democratic senators in these states, which is the epitome of political arrogance,” Cuomo emphasized. “But there’s a Republican congressman and a Republican president that has to run in these states, and these people are not going to forget.”
“How are you going to grow the economy after you put a dagger in the heart of New York and California?” he asked.
Eliminating the deduction will disproportionately affect higher income households, according to analyses by the Tax Policy Center and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
The New York Times noted in November that although “about 30 percent of all taxpayers” claimed the state and local tax deduction across all income levels, “higher-income households are more likely to claim it.”
“The Tax Policy Center estimates that only 11 percent of taxpayers with incomes under $50,000 claimed the deduction,” they add, “compared with 82 percent of filers with incomes over $100,000. Repealing the deduction altogether would raise taxes on everyone, but taxpayers with incomes over $100,000 would bear the brunt — over 90 percent — of the tax hike.”